Nothing is as it Seems
by PhoenixNS
Summary: Lily Evans works for the Gringotts international branch. Supposedly. In truth, she is a spy for the Magical Security Agency. Or so she thinks. Her father is a muggle. Not exactly. Nothing is as it seems. AU...RR!
1. Chapter 1

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Harry Potter. Don't sue. I also borrowed some of this plot from the TV show Alias.(Great show by the way, you should watch ) Kudos to J.K. Rowling and J.J. Abrams. Again, don't sue.

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_Her lungs were about to burst, the icy water becoming redder and redder with every dowsing. Lily Evans was flung backward onto the concrete floor, her hair soaked and in her face, gasping for air. Her torturer yelled something in Chinese. Lily translated easily. She was grabbed by both arms, and flung into a metal chair, then slapped across the face. She felt the coldness of metal on both of her wrist as restraints were fastened around them. She sat up, breathing heavily and stared at the door, afraid of what might come through it._

BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA

Three months earlier

"Hicks and Reed, I want you on the east entrance, Parker and Anders on the west, Bowman and Mason on the south, and Evans, you're with me on the north. Wait for my signal to enter, and watch your backs, these bastards are hard-core; I wouldn't be surprised if they had sentries outside the perimeter. Alright, let's move out!" Team Commander Griffin called out.

The team of seven men and one woman moved out of their covered position of a small clump of trees, all heavily armed with wands, explosives, and all sorts of things to take down the enemy. In this case, a man suspected in aiding terrorists to launch biological weapons, who they believed to be holed up in this factory.

Lily and Commander Griffin ran around the backside of the factory to the north entrance and waited until Lily heard something in her ear.

"Team One in position."

"Team Two ready to fly."

"Team three all set."

"Sir, all teams are in position," Lily whispered to the commander. He switched on his com link.

"All teams move in."

As soon as the words were out of his mouth Lily blasted the lock off on the chain link fence that loomed in front of them, yanked open the gate, and nailed a guard in the jaw with a swift punch before the commander had hardly moved.

"Jeez, Evans, you should have my job," he muttered and they moved silently along, meeting no more guards until they came to the entrance to the factory itself, which the commander took care of with a well placed stunning spell.

They proceeded into the building, and began combing the sector of the building that had been assigned to them before the mission.

"Commander, I think I found him!" Lily yelled from the next room over. They were in the sub-basement, and had not met anyone. The commander ran into the room, where Lily was crouched over a trap door in the floor.

"They've bewitched it so Alohomora won't work, I can't get it open," she panted. They had sprinted through every room so far. Commander Griffin ripped open one of the many pockets on his tactical vest, and pulled out a knife. He inserted it into the crack between the door and the floor and ran it along all sides.

Once he had made one revolution, Lily grabbed the ring on the door and pulled, and the door came up easily.

"Stupefy!" she shouted as a jet of red light hit a badly shaven man and he fell back into the square room in the floor below. Lily held onto the edge of the floor and swung herself down into the pit, which was pitch black, and filled with a putrid odor.

"Lumos," she muttered, and the tip of her wand ignited. The light landed on bare earthen walls, a small table with a chair, and a bucket in the corner. "Ugh," she said putting a hand up to her nose to help muffle the smell. She knelt down over the man. He had a gaunt face with thin, lank hair surrounding his face. Lily patted him down, relieved him of his wand, and conjured thick ropes that wrapped themselves around the man's wrists and ankles.

"He's secure, sir," Lily called up to her commander, who was notifying the rest of the team as to their target's capture. Griffin jumped down into the underground room.

"Lars Rifkin," he said. "One down, five million to go," he said solemnly, kicking Lars's ankle. "Well, let's get the hell out of here. Good work, Evans," he said. "Mobilicorpus," he muttered, and the terrorist floated upwards out of the hole to the agents waiting above.

Lily smiled slightly to herself, and climbed up out of the hole.

LONDON, ENGLAND

"Hey," said a man sleepily from the couch when Lily walked into her flat three hours later.

"Hi," Lily said, nervously turning the brand-new diamond ring on her left hand.

"I'm sure you will be ecstatic to know that your father called, and seemed to want to know 'who the hell I was,'" Bryan, Lily's fiancé, said.

Lily groaned loudly. "This is the first time he's called in almost a year. Bastard," she muttered.

"How was Paris?" Bryan asked, feeling that a change of subject was probably a good idea; Lily seemed to get a bit touchy around the subject of her father.

"Boring," she lied, and casually fell over the back of the couch onto Bryan's lap, where she caught sight of the diamond on her left hand. She sat there for a few moments, just staring at it. "No. I can't do this anymore," she said and grabbed Bryan's hand and pulled him off the couch and into the bathroom where she locked the door, started the shower, and then sat down hard on the toilet.

Bryan, who looked thoroughly startled, spoke. "What was that all about?"

Lily, who was sitting on the toilet with her head in her hands, looked up. "I work for the Magical Security Agency," she told him.

Bryan looked at her and chuckled. "Right, and I'm the Minister of Magic."

"I work for the MSA," Lily said firmly and stood up, looking Bryan dead in his eye. After a few seconds of Lily's unwavering stare, Bryan's smile faltered.

"W-what?"

Lily took a deep breath. "I don't work for the bank. I'm a spy," she said slowly. "And I wasn't in Paris…I was in Buenos Aires taking down a suspected terrorist's bio weapons plant."

"You work for the MSA…"

"Well, not exactly. It's a black ops branch. Called LRT."

Bryan was reeling. He stared at the floor, and then a hard look came up on his face. "How long?"

"What?" Lily asked, tears forming in her brilliantly green eyes.

"How long have you worked as a spy?"

"Five years," Lily sighed, not able to meet Bryan's eye. Lily's look hardened slightly. "You cannot tell anybody about this," she said staring at him again. "Bryan, I'm not kidding."

"You haven't told me this…I can't even begin to wonder what other things you haven't told me," he said, yanked open the bathroom door, and left Lily, tears pouring silently down her face.

_The steel door burst open and a short Asian man stepped through. He said something to the guards and they both grabbed on one of Lily's arms, and she started to struggle. They pinned her down; meanwhile, her torturer was filling a large glass syringe with some amber liquid. Lily struggled even harder against the guard, but he came at her and stuck the syringe in the crook of her elbow. The guards let go. Lily looked at the man, her panting beginning to slow. Soon her gaze was becoming harder to keep still, and finally, Lily's head fell limp on her shoulder._

The next morning Lily was dressed in her usual muggle business attire, and entered the large black building. The sign on the glass doors said _Amacore Bank_, but to the general magical public, it was the Gringotts international branch. To Lily, it was LRT headquarters.

She entered through the glass doors and entered the executive lift. Once the opaque black doors closed in front of her, Lily entered her code on the pad of numbers that were the floors, and pressed her thumb to the metal plate at the base of the pad, that looked completely flush with the rest of the panel. Lily immediately felt herself sink, and came to a halt at sub-basement six.

The black doors opened and Lily stepped out into a completely white room, with nothing in it except a black circle painted on the floor. Lily stepped to the center of the circle, straightened herself, and stared straight ahead. A red light flashed, and a heavy security door on the opposite side of the room opened, and she stepped through.

The air of this part of the building couldn't be more different than the lobby upstairs. The lobby was expensively furnished, with marble floors and lots of glass. But the headquarters of LRT had cement block walls, naked pipes and cords running along the ceiling, metal desks, and a concrete floor.

Lily ended up at her desk; hardly realizing how she had gotten there, her head was still on her confession to Bryan the night before.

Lily's partner, Darian Mason, turned to face her. "That was some raid last night, eh? Awesome how you found Rifkin like that, holed up in some godforsaken bunker, cowering in the corners…anyway that was brilliant."

Lily only gave him and half a smile.

"What's wrong?" Mason asked, obviously seeing something was bugging her.

"It's nothing," she lied. "Bryan and I had a major fight last night, that's all."

Mason nodded and seemed to accept this as a logical answer. "Well, hopefully it works out okay," he said. "We're supposed to meet Loque in the conference room in ten minutes."

"Did he say what it was about?"

"No, I'm assuming its something about Rifkin, but you know Loque…once one thing is solved, we get pushed right into another."

"Yeah, no kidding," Lily said dropping into her desk chair. "I mean we try to save the world…but sometimes I wish it would just stay saved," she sighed.

"You sure you're okay?" Mason asked, giving her a searchful look. "You're never this depressed after a fight, and especially not with a huge mission success on your résumé."

"Yeah, thanks," she said giving him a wan smile. "We should go."

"First of all I want to congratulate you two for your successes last night," Loque stated. He was a rather short man; with close cut gray hair, and a scruffy beard. "But we're not out of the woods just yet. We know that Rifkin managed to get one of his toxin distributing weapons into production, and we know where it is," he continued, and flicked his wand at the opposite wall. A picture of a rather ornate building came up. "The magical embassy in Hong Kong."

Lily looked somewhat taken aback at this news. "What the hell is he doing with it there? It may be a magical embassy but it's still a muggle run building."

"There is an underground lab in the building that we believe Rifkin to be using to do his research."

"So what's our move? Steal the bomb?" Mason asked.

"No," Loque replied.

Both Lily and Mason gave him questioning looks.

"Why not?" Lily asked.

"We don't believe that it is finished," Loque said. "And Rifkin's technicians are not aware of his capture, so they will carry on as usual. This is what the prototype looks like at the moment, pictures courtesy of an inside agent, Hans Walters," he said as another picture came up on the wall.

"And how exactly would that help us?" Lily asked.

"We believe that Rifkin had a different endgame than just trying to kill thousands of people," Loque said. "We think that if we let the technicians carry on as usual, it may help us to find out what it is, and stop it."

"So what are we doing?"

"Just simple recon. Memorize the layouts of the building, take photographs, the normal drill," he said. "You are going in as representatives of a broomstick company, looking for manufacturing rights in China. Desmond will show you your tech."

Desmond Ginch was a short and stocky man, with a rather large head. He was a technical genius, but was slightly socially inept. He had a tendency to ramble, and became very nervous.

Desmond jumped from his chair as if he had sat on a tack.

"Right," he said, rummaging in the pockets of his jacket. "Ladies first. For you Miss Evans I have this cool little lipstick camera," he said, taking a silver tube of lipstick from his inside pocket. "All you do is twist the bottom off, like this," he said, unscrewing the bottom of the tube with his tongue between his teeth, " and push down on the cap, and BOOM! Pictures," he said. "It can also analyze the pictures to make centimeter accurate blue prints of any building, and for good measure I threw in a grid analyzer." He stood there smiling and nodding at Lily, who became a bit creeped out.

"Yeah, thanks Desmond," Lily said, and took the lipstick from him.

After a few seconds Desmond realized that everyone was staring at him, and jerked slightly.

"Oh, and now for Mr. Mason," he said, rummaging in his pockets again. He brought out something that looked like a silver cigarette lighter. "Now you're going to be breaking into a heavily secured building, so you can bet that they're going to have every surveillance countermeasure, pointed at every person, in every place, at every time, doing every thing. There are both muggle and wizard security teams, but the majority of them are muggles, so watch out for those goons they carry around—"

"Guns," Lily said quietly.

"Yeah, those," he said and continued his explanation. "Now this brilliant little device will short out every magical, muggle, alien, you name it surveillance technique. It can be secrecy spells, CCTV cameras, x-ray beams, lasers, whatever," he said. "But, you just flick this back—" he flicked the top off of the lighter, "And click this—" he clicked the button, and you're practically invisible."

"You leave tonight. Good luck," Loque finished.

Lily was pacing back and forth on the hill overlooking Regent's Park. Finally, she heard a loud _crack! _And Bryan appeared a little ways away from where she was standing. He stood there and looked at her with a hard expression as she walked towards him.

"Bryan…I'm glad you came," she said quietly, and avoided his harsh gaze.

"I almost didn't," he said shortly.

"I know…" Lily said, her eyes filling with tears. "I just need a chance to explain myself properly. Bryan, you have to know that you are my anchor…you're the only thing that keeps me grounded," she said.

"I'm sure," he said sarcastically.

"Bryan, you have to listen to me. Since my mother died, I've been looking for someone to give my life meaning…that person is you. I just met the agency first."

Bryan looked at her for a second then sharply nodded. "Talk," he said.

"It was the first week I was out of Hogwarts. I had no money, besides what my father would give me, and I had no plans, and there was no way I was going back home. So, for the short time, I stayed with Carrie at her house until she moved to London. That week, we decided to go shopping, and we stopped for lunch at a small muggle café. While Carrie was in the bathroom, a man came up to me, and gave me a business card with a telephone number on it. He said he worked for Ministry of Magic intelligence, and they would like to interview me…about a job. He told me to call the number on the card if I was interested, and that I would not be contacted again.

"The truth is…I had no plans, and it was actually the last thing I was interested in, working for the Ministry. But I needed the money anyway, so I called them."

"The MSA."

"Yes. They had me come to the Amacore bank building downtown, where they gave me a battery of tests, and I started training that day. Self-defense, disguise and tracking, weapons, infiltration, everything. I've been working for them ever since."

"This is insane," Bryan said, running a hand frustratedly through his hair, making it stand on end. "Do either Carrie of Ian know about this?" he asked.

"No," Lily said. "You're the only one."

"Well, that makes me feel a bit better," he said running his hand through his hair again. "I-I need to walk, I'll talk to you tonight," he said, starting to walk down the path.

"I've got my trip," Lily called after him.

"Glasgow."

"I'll see you when I get back."

HONG KONG, CHINA

"Mason?"

"Yeah?"

"How long have you and Sara been married?" Lily asked. She and Mason were in a hotel room in Hong Kong, preparing for their mission.

"Seven, no eight years." He gave her an inquiring look. "Why?"

"And you never said anything to her?"

"About what?" he replied, but he knew exactly what Lily was talking about.

"About what we do," Lily said.

Mason looked her in the eye and said firmly, "If there is one rule you don't break, that's the rule you don't break."

Lily nodded slightly, and pointed her wand at her dark red hair and flicked it, and her normally straight hair became a mop of glossy curls. "I suppose it just gets easier after a while," she said, standing up, and going into the adjoining room.

Ten minutes later, she came out wearing a black sparkly dress, and her hair was now piled on top of her head.

"Ready?"

"Ready." Mason answered, and they left the room, and went down to their waiting car.

"It was so nice talking to you Ambassador," Lily said to the Chinese ambassador as Mason walked up behind her. Lily shook the man's hand, said good-bye again, and then walked away with Mason to one of the many round tables.

"You ready?" Mason muttered quietly.

"As ready as I'll ever be," Lily replied.

"Let's go."

Lily and Mason separated, and Mason quickly and easily melded himself into a conversation between two French diplomats, meanwhile Lily just mingled, took a glass of champagne from a wandering waiter, and waited.

Suddenly, there was a loud bang and a chair was knocked over, and Lily saw Mason lying on the floor twitching about. She saw that as her cue.

While everyone else was fussing over Mason, no one noticed Lily slipping into the lobby and through a door that said "Restricted Access."

Once she was inside, Lily's instincts took over. She kicked off her shoes, and dragged the desk chair over to a ventilation shaft. She pulled her wand from the inside of her dress and the screws holding the vent in place dropped out and the plate easily fell into her hands. Lily jumped up and grabbed onto the side of the shaft, and hoisted herself into the space.

"Mason, I'm in position."

At Lily's cue, Mason, who was now graciously accepting a glass of water from someone, put his hand into his pants pocket and clicked Desmond's lighter back. He then cleared his throat loudly signaling to Lily that he heard her.

Lily then made her way along the ducts, and slid down a large pipe into the floor below. She continued horizontally for a moment, then stopped above another air vent.

She pressed her ear against the pipe, and hearing no sounds, she deduced that the corridor below was empty. She sat up and brought her foot down on top of the vent, sending it to the floor. Then Lily lowered herself into the stark white corridor, lined with doors.

"I'm in the basement," she whispered, and the sound of a throat being cleared sounded in her ear.

Next, from the bodice of her dress, Lily brought out Desmond's lipstick camera, and ran along the corridors, snapping random pictures in hopes that Desmond would be able to enhance something later.

Finally, she came to a stop in front of the R&D lab. She drew her wand, pointed it at the heavy black door and quietly mumbled something. The door opened with a hiss, and Lily slid inside.

The room was enormous, large metal supports rising from the floor, and a long row of worktables in the middle of the room. Lily snapped a bunch of photos, and turned to leave, when something caught her eye. She whipped around and jogged to the end of the long row of tables, where she saw the exact device that Loque had shown then during the briefing. Lily quickly snapped a photo, and ran out of the lab.

LONDON

"Hey, I'm back—" Lily called as she returned her keys to her purse as she walked into her flat. She looked up, and immediately dropped everything she was holding.

The apartment looked like it had been ripped apart at the seams. Furniture was turned upside-down, papers were everywhere, the legs had been broken off the coffee table, and the floor was littered with glass. "Oh my god," she whispered.

Lily strode to the first doorway in the hallway and pushed it open. "Oh," she breathed, and covered her mouth in a silent scream.

Bryan was lying in the bathtub, the white porcelain spattered with blood. Lily knelt at the tub, and quickly reached for his neck and felt for a pulse. Nothing.

"AHHHHHHH!" she took in a shaky breath. "AHHHH!"

Lily flew along the street in her car (an anti-Disapparation jinx had been placed on the house), things magically moving out of her way. She cranked a hard left and flew into the parking garage adjacent to the Amacore Bank building. She squealed to a stop, jumped out of her car, and ran into the elevator and immediately began punching in the button for sublevel six.

Lily looked a mess. Her hair was tangled and messy, the makeup had run from her eyes, and her shirt was covered in blood. When she finally got into the office she strode purposefully to Loque's office, trying, and failing, to keep her composure as the other agents were staring at her.

She strode right through the glass doors that surrounded Loque's office without even knocking. She stopped dead as Loque raised his head to look at her.

"W-what did you do?" she asked tearfully.

"I might ask you the same question," he said. He raised his wand and flicked it and the doors behind Lily automatically closed. He was clearly not happy with her. "Apparently Mr. Cooper called your muggle telephone line and left you a message. From what he said, Security Section deduced that you had told him about LRT and performed their function." Mr. Loque looked up at her; there was not an ounce of sympathy in his eyes. "Any unauthorized information about this agency must be treated like a virus. There is only one response to that. Containment. There was a risk. Now it is no longer a problem."

Lily dropped into a chair and sobbed into her hands. "Bryan wasn't a r-risk...he was j-just a man…"

"We here at LRT have our protocols. And even though I _detest_ that countermeasure—"

Lily snapped. She leapt from her chair, grabbed Loque around his neck and pinned him to his desk. "Stop saying _we_. Stop talking about _the agency_. _You_ killed the man I love."

"No, Agent Evans. You did."

Lily was shaking uncontrollably she was so angry and sad. She took an unsteady breath, pushed Loque into his desk and then let him go. She walked over to the door and pulled on the handle. No give.

"Let me out," she said.

Loque just looked at her and straightened his tie as though nothing had happened.

"_Let…me…out_," she said more forcefully.

This time Loque obliged, and pointed his wand at the doors and Lily rushed out.

"_Wow, wow, wow," Lily said. She had just woken up. "I don't know what you put in that stuff. Wow."_

_The short pudgy man was sitting in a chair in front of her. Lily gave him a cold stare._

_"I'd rather no make this too painful," he said._

_"Me too. Glad we're on the same level. It's good." The man leaned in so his face was an inch from Lily's. "Whoa…"_

_"Who are you working for?" he asked her. Lily said nothing._

_"I'll not ask you again," he said._

_Lily paused for a few seconds considering. "Okay," she said. "Get a pen. Write this down—" Lily said and gave the man a few letters that did not reveal much. "Got that?"_

_"Yes," Pudgy answered._

_"Now, reverse it."_

_The man reversed the letters on the notepad, spelling out an extremely rude expression._

_Lily began to laugh hysterically._

_"I've got bad news for you man. I'm your worst enemy. I've got nothing to lose."_

_The man snapped his fingers, and a guard handed him a black leather case. He unzipped it, revealing an assortment of pliers and other shiny, lethal looking tools._

_"That's not exactly true," he said. "You have teeth."_

Lily was sitting in a white chair in the cemetery, Ian on her left, and Carrie on her right. She was dressed in all black, and she was wearing her mother's pearl earrings. Tears were pouring silently down her face, Ian was looking at the ground, and Carrie reached across and squeezed Lily's hand, which was resting in her lap, along with a single white rose. The preacher finished his speech, and Lily rose from her seat and placed the rose on Bryan's casket before it was lowered into the ground.

After the funeral, everyone went back to Carrie's for tea. Everyone was sitting in the living room, consoling Bryan's parents, or just talking quietly. But Lily was sitting on the floor in the hallway, by herself.

"Lily?"

Lily looked up at the sound of her name, to see a woman with shoulder length tomato red hair standing above her.

"Amy," Lily breathed, hastening to stand up. Once she was on her feet, they embraced each other. "How's Ian?" Lily asked. She was worried that one of her best friends was almost as heart broken as she was.

"Bryan was his best friend," Amy, who was Ian's sister, said. "I think he'll eventually be okay, but it might take him a few days. The question is how are you?"

"Oh, Amy," Lily said, her eyes filling with tears for what seemed like the millionth time. "I don't know," she said, completely breaking down.

"You will be. Just give it some time."

"I know, it's just, I have no one—family wise—to talk to about this. I mean, Ian has you, and Carrie has her dad…I've got no one."

"Lily Evans, you know that is not true. I know we're not related by blood, and I know I'm not a witch, but you are family. You can talk to me or Ian, or Carrie whenever you need to. Don't forget that."

"Thank you," Lily said, trying to give a strained smile.

"You're welcome," Amy said, hugging her again.

Lily was sitting in a café, sipping a cup of coffee and reading a book. Suddenly a loud beeping noise emitted from her purse. She reached over and pulled a small black box out of her purse. It was a magical beeper, modified to look like a muggle one so it wouldn't attract unwanted attention when Lily was in the muggle world. She looked at the tiny screen and saw that it read: LOQUE-ASAP. Lily sighed and rolled her eyes, slammed her book closed and got up from the table.

She was about to cross the street when she heard her name being called.

"Lily!"

She turned around to see Darian Mason walking towards her.

"How've you been?" she asked, hugging him and smiling.

"How are you? That's more important," he replied, the familiar twinkle in his eye.

"Fine. Better," she said. "Thank you for the flowers by the way, that was sweet."

Mason put on his business face. "Look, Loque's getting impatient. They gave you a month off, it's been almost three."

"I've talked to Loque…"

"Yeah, apparently not to his satisfaction." Mason sighed. "They got word. Rifkin's team is finished building the device. Loque wants it."

"They don't need me for that op," Lily began.

"They say they do," Mason said.

"Tell them to call Walters."

"Walters is dead. We got confirmation Tuesday. Lil, they need you active. If they can't put faith in someone in as deep as you are…they'll _fix_ that problem."

Lily sighed. "I know they sent you here to bring me back. But I'm sorry, I just can't yet," she said, then turned and started down the street.

"Lily!" Mason called, but Lily didn't turn around.

Lily walked two blocks to the parking garage where she had parked her car. She rode the elevator up to the level her car was on, walked out and got in her car. Just as she was about to put on her seat belt, she noticed a tiny red dot snaking up the inside of the car. She glanced to the right where there was a man with his window rolled down, pointing his wand straight at her. Her training took over at this point. She slammed her head onto the passenger seat, a millisecond before the window exploded over her head. She crouched forward, staying below the windows, turned on the ignition, put the vehicle into reverse, and stamped on the gas. She flew backwards out of her parking space but the other vehicle was too fast. It hit the back of her car, pinning her in the space. She launched herself across the passenger seat and opened the door, falling out onto the garage floor on her stomach. She could still her the men blasting spells at her car. She picked up her purse and started running as fast as she could toward the lift. She got there and slammed into the door and began prodding the button as fast as possible, but those agents weren't stupid. The must have put the lift into lockdown.

Lily heard the squealing of tires on the concrete floor and began to run again. She ducked behind a car, unsure of what to do. After all, she wasn't armed, she hardly ever carried her wand when she was out in muggle London; and she was trapped.

Behind the car she heard heavy footfalls. Lily had an idea. The agent was about to turn away from her. She moved from behind the car and hid on the other side. The agent turned away and was about to walk in the opposite direction. That's when Lily struck.

She slid across the hood of the car and delivered a swift kick to the man's torso; he doubled over for a few seconds then reared back up pointing his wand at her. Lily grabbed his arm and brought it down over her shoulder and twisted, forcing the man to release his wand. It clattered to the floor a few feet away.

The man now directed a fierce blow to Lily's cheek, which connected with a heavy force. But Lily turned and elbowed the man in the ribs, but he grabbed her from behind and twisted her arm behind her back and forced her down on the hood of the car. Lily managed to get her left foot up to the man's chest, and used it to push him off of her, and he fell against the door of the next car. She brought her leg up and sharply kicked the man, his head breaking the window and knocking him unconscious. Lily heard more squealing tires, coming up from the level below. She twisted around, grabbed the man's wand from the floor, and turned towards the noise and a black car screeched to a halt in front of her.

"Get in!"

Lily sharply released air. "Daddy?"

The aim of the wand had landed upon Jack Evan's forehead. On the other side of the garage, the sound of a car speeding toward them was heard.

"Now!" he said flinging the door open towards Lily. She grabbed her purse from the floor and got in.

By now the enemy car had found them and was flinging spells at Jack's car. He drove to the end of the row, then cut sharply so the vehicle was facing the opposite direction. He put the car in reverse and hit the gas.

"Hang on!" he yelled.

Lily's mind was reeling. She had been attacked and it was her father that had come to her rescue. But what really threw her was that from the breast pocket of his suit, he brought out a wand.

"Dad, what are you doing?" Lily yelled.

But he put his arm out the window, aimed the wand, and with a hard recoil action, orange sparks bored through the windshield of the enemy car. Finally, the driver was hit, and Jack was at the end of the row. He cut hard and flew out of the way as the other car smashed into the wall.

Jack didn't waste any time. Barely a minute later they were merging onto the busy London streets. Finally, he spoke.

"You have to realize there are going to be a lot of things you won't understand tonight. The first thing you must accept is that the agency doesn't trust you anymore and they're going to kill you unless you do as I say. I work for LRT, just like you. Undercover at Gateway Aerospace."

"You're a wizard?" Lily asked in disbelief, her eyes wide.

"Yes. I've booked you on a muggle plane leaving for France, its safer to use muggle transport, they won't be expecting that. But you'll be red flagged at customs, so I've given you new papers," he said handing Lily a folder with a new passport and a plane ticket inside.

Jack had driven to an empty parking lot on the outskirts of London.

"That car is going to take you to the airport. I have to get back if they're not going to know."

"Who are you?' Lily said coldly.

"Lily, get in that car. They're only waiting three minutes, then they leave, with you or not." Lily grabbed his face and pinched around as though she were checking for a mask. "There is no time for you not to trust me. You don't know who you're dealing with."

"What does that mean?" Lily asked quickly. "Who the hell am I dealing with?"

Jack sighed. "About eleven years ago a pool of agents went freelance. Russian, Chinese, British, American—"

"The Alliance."

"What do you know about them?"

"They're mercenaries, they're a major threat to the magical community, they're dangerous."

"I'm one of them," Jack said, his green eyes boring into Lily's similar ones. "LRT is not a black-ops division of the MSA. LRT is a branch of the Alliance. You've been working for the very enemy you thought you were fighting."

Lily's eyes widened. "That's impossible," Lily breathed.

"Then tell me why you've never been to the main headquarters. You've been lied to. All lower level agents have been lied to. I am trying to help you here."

"So…you're saying that I'm working for the enemy. That you are the enemy."

The car that was to take Lily to the airport revved its engine, getting ready to leave.

"Lily, this is your last chance. You have to go," Jack said as he watched the car begin to drive away.

Lily scowled at him. "Who are you to come to me and act like a father? You want to help me? Stay away from me." And with that Lily jumped out of her father's car and ran down the alley.

"_Okay. Let's try one more time. Who do you work for?" Pudgy had Lily's mouth opened wide, and a pair of yankers at the ready._

"_Hahughshugh," Lily said. Or at least tried to. The guard who was holding her mouth open removed the device. "I just wanted to say…start with the teeth in the back if you don't mind," Lily said. Her mouth was clamped open again, and soon screams filled the air._

"So then what happened?" Ian Wallace was talking to an old man in the fire with absolutely no hair, but the most absurd mustache he had ever seen. "He dropped a flowerpot on your cat?" Ian repeated, making a note of this on his parchment. Ian was a young staff reporter for the _Daily Prophet_. He had scruffy blonde hair, and glasses, and was wearing the red plaid shirt Lily always said made him look like a lumberjack. He turned back to the man that he was interviewing. "Did he ever make any threats? To you or your cat." Suddenly, the man burst into tears, effectively putting out the fire and disconnecting himself from Ian.

As Ian turned back to his desk, chuckling, an owl swooped in through an open window and dropped an envelope on Ian's desk. He broke the wax seal, and read a very short note.

_Meet me on the roof._

_L._

"Meet me on the roof? That was perfect though, you should have seen this bloke I was talking to. So I got like an hour, you want to get some lunch? What happened to your face?" Ian reached up to touch the bruise forming on Lily's cheek. She leaned away from him.

"I can't explain it right now so don't even ask, you just have to trust me," Lily said, looking up at him.

Ian blinked a few times. "Of course."

"I need to borrow one of your sister's credit cards with at least a 3,000 pound limit; I'll pay her back, can you get it?"

"Lil, what is this? You owe someone some money?" Ian asked, now becoming even more concerned.

"There's something else. Do you know where Amy keeps her passport?"

Two hours later Lily emerged from a public restroom, completely unrecognizable. To start off, her hair was a bright tomato red. She wore a black camisole with a black fishnet shirt over top. She had on a red plaid kilt, fishnet tights, and combat boots that reached up to her knees, complete with shiny silver buckles. She also had on a large array of studded bracelets and a dog collar choker, and heavy black makeup around her eyes, and blood red lips. In essence, she looked exactly like Amy.

She was walking through the main terminal at Heathrow. She strutted up to the woman at the desk, and set down her bag. Forcefully.

"One way ticket to Hong Kong, leaving as soon as possible."

The woman set to type on her computer, her long nails clacking away. Muggles were so inefficient.

"We have a flight leaving for Hong Kong in thirty minutes, with a few available seats," she said.

"Good. That will do."

"May I see your passport, please?"

Lily handed over the passport, which the woman opened, looked at the picture, above which read the name _Amy L. Wallace_. The woman seemed satisfied with the likeness of Lily and the picture, typed the number into her computer, and handed the booklet back to Lily.

"How many bags will you be checking through to Hong Kong?"

"Just this one."

"Window or aisle?"

HONG KONG, CHINA

When Lily arrived in Hong Kong many hours later, she went to the airport bathroom, and changed into black jeans, and a black turtleneck. She left the airport, and walked a few blocks away to a busy restaurant. She went around the back into an alley where a service van was parked. The rest of the alley was empty, so it would have to do.

Because LRT was obviously searching for her, she had to keep her modes of transportation to the inefficient muggle ways, as LRT would least suspect her of using it, and she was less likely to draw attention to herself.

As she didn't have her wand because she wasn't foolish enough to go back to her flat before she left, she pulled a locksmith's set from her pocket and proceeded to pick the lock. Everything could be bought for a price.

Suddenly, a black Jaguar rolled to a stop behind the van Lily was trying to break into. A tall Asian man smoking a cigarette got out and walked past Lily, blowing smoke into her face. Lily scowled.

Lily was driving down the street in the Jaguar, and pulled up in front of a familiar looking building. She scanned the area for guards, and quickly pulled around to the side of the building. She grabbed the things that she needed and jammed a black hat on her head to try and cover the brightness of her hair. She got out of the car and locked it securely.

She ran down the sidewalk a little ways, and took out a large gun. She aimed and pulled the trigger, and a large three-pronged hood exploded out of the end and embedded itself in the wall of the ministry building. She pulled the rope taut and began to climb over the wall. Once she was at the top she dropped silently to the other side. She moved silently and quickly along the dark rows of shrubbery concealing her. She eased out on one side to assess the situation. There were guards patrolling around the one side with no way to the door. Instead she carefully began to scale the outside walls of the building, and made it to the roof.

She took a screwdriver and proceeded to unscrew the top covering of a ventilation shaft. She easily lowered herself into the small shaft, and inched her way down as far as she could go. When she reached the bottom she kicked open the door and climbed out of the shaft.

A lot quicker than she had planned on she made her way to the door in which she broke through to take photographs. She brought out her locksmith's set again and set to work on the lock. Just as she was about to get through, one of the pieces broke and she was stuck outside the door.

"Damn it," she swore. Then everything went black.

Lily groaned. A thick stream of blood was flowing freely from the back of her mouth. She lifted her head and Pudgy was standing in front of her both of his hands behind his back. Lily groaned again.

"The medication I gave you helps the pain. It only lasts for three hours. And it's been three hours almost. Now, I will ask you again, and if you cooperate, you get more. Resist, and we go the other way." He held out both of his hands. In his left hand were the pliers. In the right was a small black bottle.

Lily paused for a moment. "The agency—" she said in a very quiet and hoarse voice.

"Louder," Pudgy commanded.

"I can't," she rasped, near tears.

The torturer leaned in so his face was an inch from Lily's. "Who do you work for, you pretty little girl?"

Lily brought her head back and then forward as hard as she could, head-butting her captor, knocking him backwards. Then, she leaned back as far as she could in the chair and flipped it over on top of the man. She easily slide her hand down into the man's pockets and grabbed his keys, and uncuffed herself from the chair, set it upright, and cuffed Pudgy to it. She picked up his yankers, and brandished them in his face.

"No, nonononono," he sobbed.

Lily stared at him, one side of her face was swollen and there was stream of blood at the corner of her mouth. She jammed the pliers into his stomach and he screamed, causing the guards to come in from the other room.

She pulled a bamboo pole from a pile and snapped it in half against her leg. In less than thirty seconds the two guards lay unconscious on the floor.

As Desmond said, the security teams in the building were muggle, even if it was a magical building. Lily stole their guns, as she didn't have a wand, and headed out the door.

She flew down the stairs not taking any care to be stealthy. She blasted a few shots at the door on her way down the stairway and when she got to the bottom, she crashed it open with a forceful kick.

She made her way into the lab to where the device was the last time she had seen it, though unfinished. It was in a glass case. She grabbed a lab coat and tried to open the lock on the door to the case. No give. She grabbed a fire extinguisher from the wall next to it, and gave the lock a long burst of carbon dioxide, then brought the canister crashing down, breaking off the frozen lock. She opened the door and reached in, but carefully considered what she was about to do. Instead of the two black circles in the pictures Loque showed them, the circles were now stacked on top of each other, with a large green ball rolling freely between them. Lily carefully disconnected the wire that was holding the ball in space. But instead of falling to the ground like a normal ball, it exploded in a splash of colored water. Lily grabbed the device and wrapped it in a lab coat hanging on a hook.

She heard more guards come in and ducked behind the desk. She grabbed her guns from the table and waited. Abruptly, Lily popped up and fired off a few rounds. The guards fired back She popped up again and pulled the triggers only to hear clicking sounds. The guards fired again just as Lily ducked. She was trapped.

Looking around her for something she could use against the guards, Lily spotted a thin metal rod on the edge of the table, and a gas line to a solder torch. She grabbed the rod, wedged it under the pipe and forced it up letting the gas escape into the room. She hunched down behind the desk and crawled out around the other side towards the door. The guards were moving back towards her previous hiding place.

"Hey, guys," she said loudly. The guards saw her and fired, but their bullets hit the wall of invisible gas, causing a huge explosion. But by that time Lily was already out of the building. She had set off an alarm and so in her haste kicked the window of the waiting car and drove off down the street.

LONDON, ENGLAND

"Sir, Agent Evans just arrived," a woman's voice sounded throughout Loque's office at LRT headquarters.

Loque started. "Send her in. NOW!"

Lily was walking through the offices of LRT, and she was getting a lot of stares. She still had blood at the corner of her mouth, she was dressed in black jeans and a black sweater, but most of all, her hair was still a bright, tomato red. She strode confidently to Mr. Loque's office, not looking at anyone. Mason rose out of his chair and stared after her in disbelief.

Lily strode right into Loque's office, setting a bundle on his desk. He looked down and uncovered it, seeing the Rifkin device.

"I'm back," was all Lily said. Her voice was still very hoarse.

"Okay," was all Loque said.

"I'm taking the week off," Lily said. "I'm moving into my new flat."

"That's fine," Loque replied.

Lily was walking down a busy street, looking very out of place in her strange outfit amongst all the muggles in business suits. She entered a towering black building, that no muggles seemed to notice.

She walked up to the front desk, where a woman with a headset was writing something. She finished whatever it was, and tapped it with her wand. It folded itself into a paper airplane and zoomed off down the lobby.

"Can I help you?" she said, eyeing Lily's hair.

"I need to speak to your director, Mr. Kendall," she said quietly.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Kendall isn't available, may I leave a message?" she said officially.

"Tell him…Tell him he has a walk-in," she said, her voice barely above a whisper.

The receptionist obviously understood her. She said into her headset, "Rosie, we have a walk-in for Mr. Kendall," she paused and came around the front of the desk. "Come with me, please."

Lily followed her across the large entryway. On the floor there was a huge seal. There was a silver owl on it with a gold shield. On the shield there was a wand and a scroll crossed. Arching over the top were the words MAGICAL SECURITY AGENCY.

A tall, thin man with jet black hair that stood up at all ends was walking though a busy office, a cup of coffee and a sandwich in his hands.

"Hey, Potter, you have that recon debrief—"

"Oh, I know, I'll get to it I swear," he said apologetically, and kept walking.

He opened the door to a large conference room where Lily, still with her crazy red hair was sitting and writing furiously.

"Um, here's some coffee and something to eat, uh, just let Agent Black know if you need anything."

"More ink, this one's empty," she said, dipping her quill then sliding the jar across the table, where it joined three more empty ones. Potter looked at Agent Black, who left in search of more ink.

About an hour later, Lily was sitting in an office, slouched low in the chair. She was staring at a picture of the man who might become her new handler with a pretty blonde woman. Both were smiling and hugging each other close.

Potter walked in and went around the front of his desk, turned the picture frame around as he went.

"Well, this could be very interesting," he said.

"Does that mean I'm in?" Lily said.

"No. Not yet, they're reviewing your statement." He paused. "You wrote a lot."

"I know."

"But I have an instinct, and I know we could use another double agent inside LRT." Lily was shaking her head. "Why are you shaking your head?" he asked.

"Because you said another. And if you really had another, you most likely wouldn't tell me until I was authenticated. My bet is you don't have another double."

"We might—"

"But you want me to believe that you do, so in the off chance that I'm actually looking to be a triple agent, I'll report back that there's an existing mole to upset the balance of my agency."

Potter raised an eyebrow. "I'm not trying to trick you."

"Yeah, we'll see," Lily said scowling. She casually put her hand on her cheek forgetting for a second that it was tender. She flinched.

Potter noticed this. "You need to get that looked at by a Healer," he said concernedly. "If you want I can have you checked out before you leave."

"I'm alright."

"I'm going to get you a ride out of here to keep you concealed. I'll be right back." He got up and left.

Lily was back in the cemetery, a bunch of flowers in her hand. Her hair was now back to its normal dark redness, her face was makeupless, and she was wearing jeans and a t-shirt. She walked up to Bryan's gravestone and crouched down, placing the flowers on top. She stared at it for a few moments and sighed. Then she heard something behind her. She turned around to see her father walking towards her.

"I wanted to say I was sorry," he said.

"You don't have to. I'm back at work, I guess you know that."

"I meant sorry about Bryan. There was nothing I could do," he said, and it sounded as though he really was sorry, but the man hid the truth about himself from Lily her entire life, and she wasn't exactly about to go ahead and believe him.

"I'd like to be alone if you don't mind," she said bluntly.

"I know what its like to lose someone—"

Lily turned towards him with a hard expression on her face. "Look, I don't know what you expect. Just because we're working together. Just because I know the truth about you now…it doesn't change a thing between us. I accept what I'm doing now because I have no other choice. It doesn't mean I have to accept you."

Jack sighed and came forward. "I asked Kendall if I could come and tell you myself. They verified your statement. You're in." Lily stared at him.

"You're MSA," Lily said in half awe, half disbelief.

"You don't know how dangerous this is, Lily. Doing what I do. I almost wish you had taken me up on France."

"How do I know what you're telling me is the truth?" Lily asked, her eyes hardening.

"I guess we'll just have to learn to trust each other," he said and he walked away, got in his car, and drove off.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: And So It Begins…

"Okay, stop," James said loudly. "You have to listen to me now."

"You said you wanted to talk about the plan, I'm giving you the plan," Lily said bossily. She had been spouting off contacts and names of operatives that help LRT for the last ten minutes.

"That's not your job. I give you the plan."

Lily rolled her eyes. "Look, I don't know what your problem is with me, maybe it's because I'm a woman, or you just don't like my attitude and I am sorry about that. I appreciate what you're doing, even though I think you're a little young to be doing it, but there is only one way we are going to take these guys down, and that's my way. I promise you, I will hand you, in record time, the remains of the terrorist group that used to be the Alliance."

"Record time?" James said incredulously.

"Three months, tops, then I am out, I want no more of this spy crap that's why I came to you in the first place."

James looked at her, then slid a piece of parchment and a quill over to her.

From the outside, they were sitting in the back of a delivery truck. But in reality, the inside was a spacious office, with a table and chairs.

"Draw me a map. A map of LRT. All of its contacts, how far you think it reaches."

Lily was really beginning to get aggravated. "Do I look like I'm twelve years old? Do you see braces on my teeth or spots erupting on my face—" she shouted.

"JUST DO IT!"

Lily pursed her lips and yanked the parchment towards her. She began to draw; a large circle, with others coming out of it, it looked like a spider web. After a minute, she put the quill down, and threw the paper back at James.

He picked it up and looked at it for a few seconds, then put it down and rubbed his eyes tiredly. He sighed, then stood up and opened a cabinet over his head and brought out a long piece of paper rolled up.

He set it on the table, and unrolled it, revealing a huge map; LRT was in the middle with thousands of branches leading out of it. Lily's eyes widened.

"If this was just about taking down the London cell, we would have raided that office two years ago. This is what your dealing with, Lily. This isn't about cutting off an arm of the monster…this is about killing the monster. And the work you're going to do, the work your father's been doing, its complicated, it's political, and it is long term."

Lily looked as though she were about to cry. She folded the parchment over so she wouldn't have to look at it. James almost felt sorry for her.

"Okay, now tomorrow is your first day back, and nothing should really change," James said. "You will get your mission outline, then detail it on the back of a brown paper bag," he said holding up a brown lunch bag. "Then you will dead drop the information at any one of these secret locations," he said handing Lily a map of a part of London. "They are disguised as trash bins, all you have to do is throw the bag in there, and the information will be received at the ops center.

"Now, do you have a telephone?" James asked.

"Yeah, why?

"That's how we will be contacting you for a meet. We will review your outline, and then come up with a counter mission. Someone will call you, posing as someone looking for Gino's Pizza. You tell them it's a wrong number, then report to one of these places," James handed her another map. "Each corresponds to the bin that you threw the bag in, and they rotate weekly, so if you're being monitored, they won't pick up anything unusual. Any questions?"

"Yeah, can you show me what a bag looks like again?"

James gave her a don't-waste-my-time look. "We're done for today."

"Thanks," Lily said, and got up and left.

"Did I ever tell you I absolutely despise moving?" Lily said, as she carried what seemed like the fiftieth box into her living room.

"Did I ever tell you I absolutely despise helping?" Carrie said from behind the kitchen counter, where she was piling dishes into the cabinets. Lily turned around and stuck out her tongue childishly.

Carrie Wainwright was a tall black girl, with big brown eyes, and an even bigger smile. She and Lily had been best friends ever since their first day at Hogwarts, and remained so even after they graduated.

"What ever happened to Ian helping?" Lily grunted as she lifted a huge box and set it over in a corner.

"He had to rewrite an article for the third time," Carrie said. "Supposedly. I still think he just wanted to get out of helping."

Just as she said this, the door opened, and the tall, thin, scruffy blonde man walked through the door, a large paper bag in his arms.

"God, its about time," Carrie said, giving him the evil-eye.

"Yeah, yeah. It's not my fault, Lowman just hates me."

"Ian, you used to say the same thing about McGonagall too," Carrie said.

"Whatever. But, to make up for my lateness, I have brought sustenance," he said, handing a carton to Carrie and bowing.

"Ooo, yay," Carrie said, and snatched the carton away from him.

"Where's Lils?"

"Uh…." Carrie said staring around, a piece of moo shu pork halfway to her mouth. "Bedroom?"

Ian picked up two more food cartons and carried them back through the hallway to Lily's bedroom, where she was busy loading her wardrobe with clothes.

"You, uh, want some food?" he said holding out the white carton.

"Yes, I'm starving," she said, taking a pile of jeans and setting them in a drawer. "I just want to get my room done so I feel like I live here."

"Here," Ian said, taking a stack of sweaters from the box, but then returning them and sighing. "Okay, I can't take this," he said.

"Oh, come on, not this again!" Lily exclaimed.

"You took Amy's passport—"

"I know—"

"You took her credit card—"

"I know what happened, Ian!"

"Look, Bryan must have been in some kind of trouble—"

"Stop it," Lily said coldly. Ian quieted. "I am trying to move on here, and you're only making it harder," she said quietly.

"Lily, you can't expect for me to let this go," Ian said exasperatedly.

"Well, you're going to have to," Lily snapped. "You know what I used to see whenever I walked into the bathroom? Do you?" Ian looked at the floor. "I saw him. I saw him covered in blood, his eyes blank—" Lily was cut off as a sob choked her. "I need you to let this go," she said tiredly. She then took her food from the bare bed and went out to join Carrie in the kitchen, and left Ian standing and feeling ashamed.

"You're going to Thailand," Loque said the next morning. "Specifically, Bangkok. An old friend of ours, Kanya Oakpao," he explained, and a picture of a very pretty Asian woman smiling evilly came up.

Lily rolled her eyes. "What did she do now?"

"Nothing, yet," Loque said, and leaned forward, his weight on his palms. "And you two are going to make sure it stays that way," he said nodding to Lily and Mason. "We've received intel that Oakpao is planning on taking over the late Domovoi Buchanen's arms business," he explained as a picture of a large Eurasian man came up on the wall, "Oakpao and Buchanen were close, but not that close. Oakpao wants his clients, but she doesn't know who they are. Your mission is to break into Buchanen's Bangkok estate and retrieve his client list before Kanya does. Agent Mason you will be on coms for this, Evans you will be on point. Go, Desmond," Loque finished, handing the conversation over to Desmond, who stood up.

"Okay, now we don't know exactly where Buchanen will have his client list, but logically we can assume that it will be somewhere in his private office. Thanks to the Bangkok city records, we have detailed blueprints of Buchanen's estate," Desmond said, and pointed his wand at the screen, and a floor plan of the third floor came up. "Now, we're only guessing here, but Buchanen liked to do things old school, so he will probably have his files hidden in some type of safe, but we don't have any intel yet on what kind of model," he said. "I'll get back to you on that."

"You will leave from here at six o'clock this evening, putting you in Thailand at around one o'clock in the morning their time. The guards reduce for the night shift around 2 A.M. That will be your window. You get your op-tech from Desmond before you leave. That's all, you can go," Loque said, dismissing them. Lily and Mason made to stand up when Loque spoke again. "Lily, could you come with me for a second, there is something I need to show you."

"Sure," Lily said, puzzled. "I'll see you tonight," she said to Mason. Mason left behind Desmond, and Lily followed Loque to his office.

He pushed the door open. "I'll leave you two alone," was all he said, and then he left.

Jack Evans was standing in front of Lily. "What the hell are you doing here?" she said.

"To tell you what I told you before. That I work for LRT."

"Why?"

"Because it will facilitate what we're doing, if they know that you know," Jack said quietly.

Lily looked up at him, with a hard look on her face. "Since I've known the truth about you, I can't stop asking myself questions. But there's one that I have to ask you now," Lily said. "Was Mum's accident, just that…an accident? Or did you tell her what you were doing, like I told Bryan?"

"You're mother knew I was a wizard, and she knew I was MSA, it was no secret between us," he said.

"What about Petunia?"

"No. She doesn't know." Jack looked at his watch. "Lily, I have to go I'm late for a meeting. And it wouldn't hurt you to look surprised after you left the office," he said, and left.

_LRT is sending me to Bangkok. A Thai thief, named Kanya Oakpao, is now trying to take over the late Domovoi Buchanen's arms dealings. My mission is to break into Buchanen's estate in Bangkok and steal his client list, and delivery it to LRT. We're leaving tonight at 6 P.M. What's my countermission?_

Lily stood up from her position on the park bench and then deposited the paper bag she had been writing on in a bin, and walked off down the street.

Lily was in her bedroom, piling dark clothes into her suitcase. As she was adding a pair of black trainers to her bag, a shrill ringing sounded through the flat, causing her elf owl to let out a loud screech. Lily walked over to her beside table and picked up the telephone.

"Hello?"

"Gino's Pizza?"

Lily's heart slammed into her ribcage. "W-wrong number," she said and hung up.

"It's me," Lily said thirty minutes later, as she arrived at a magazine stand on the street.

"Pretty simple countermission, this one," James said as he picked up a magazine and pretended to look at it. "We believe that since LRT is after Buchanen's client list, they are trying to expand _their_ weapons dealings. All you have to do is when you get into Buchanen's office and find the file, switch it with this," he whispered, sliding something into Lily's jacket pocket. "And deliver the real list to us. When you get back, you'll dead drop in one of the trash cans designated for your mission outlines."

"That's it?" Lily asked.

"That's it," James said. "Good luck."

Lily looked down at the magazine she was holding. "Thanks."

BANGKOK, THAILAND

"Rocket, I'm in position," Lily whispered into her earpiece.

"Copy that, Lancer. The guard nearest to you is moving away…you're clear to the building," Mason answered back. He was station in a utility van parked outside of the Buchanen estate.

Lily quickly and quietly ran to the enormous building, and hid in the dark shadows it cast. "Rocket, I'm at stage one."

"Copy. You're clear to enter," Mason's voice told her.

Lily whipped around the corner, drawing her wand at the same time. She whispered something and pointed her wand at the door, which glowed a bright green around the edges. Lily turned the handle and stepped inside, sticking to the shadows along the walls. "I'm in," she breathed.

"Can you get up to the third floor?"

Lily spotted a grand staircase in the darkness. "Yes. Guards?"

"I don't see anything," Mason replied. "But keep your eyes peeled."

"Copy that," she said, and quickly padded up the stairs to the third floor.

"Buchanen's office is the fourth on the left," Mason said.

Lily again pointed her wand at the door handle, and again the outer edge glowed a fluorescent green. She opened the door to reveal a large office. There was a large mahogany desk off to the right, and large floor to ceiling windows covering the far wall. Lily entered the room, and brought out a rectangular silver box, and held it up, and circled around. Once she passed over the desk, a rapid beeping emitted from the box. She walked behind the desk, and examined the bookshelves behind it. She passed her hands along the books on the shelves, hoping to find a false front, but she came up with nothing. Just then she spotted a crack running along the panels of the bookcase, and grabbed the inside of the shelf and pulled. The entire panel of shelving came away from the wall, and swung to the left on a hinge, giving Lily access to a hidden closet, in which there was a large black safe.

From her bag, she brought out another of Desmond's gadgets. It was a hollow cone, which she fastened over the dial, and a small screen attached to it with a thin cable. Lily hit a button on the screen, and the dial began spinning, the device deciphering the code. In less than thirty seconds the safe lay open in front of her.

It was cluttered with files of papers, a few sacks of gold, and various other objects. Finally Lily found what she was looking for. She brought out a long, thin, red box and set it on the desk. She knew that she would never be able to open the box with a spell, so from her pack she took a long thin knife, and stuck it into the slot at the opening of the box. With a faint hiss, the box opened in front of her. Inside was a mini-rolodex, a list of names and contacts of people that Domovoi Buchanen had done business with.

"Rocket, I found the safe," Lily said, delaying her actions to allow herself extra time. Meanwhile, she brought out the piece of parchment that James had given her with the fake clients names. She pointed her wand at the box, and then did a complicated wave and then pointed it at the piece of parchment, performing a switching spell. The real clients names were now on the piece of parchment, and the false names were now in the box she would give to Loque.

Lily smiled silently to herself and hastily shoved the piece of parchment back into her pack, when the door banged open.

"Expelliarmus!"

Lily's wand flew from her grasp, as a beautiful Asian woman entered the room.

"Evans," she said, giving Lily an evil smile.

"Kanya," Lily said coldly.

"I must thank you for saving me the trouble of finding dear Domovoi's safe," she said in a lilting accent. "As we all know the man was notoriously suspicious, and usually managed to keep things hidden quite well," she said sweetly, then spied the red box on the desk. "Ah! And you even saved me the trouble of cracking the safe, I thank you again Agent Evans," she said, smiling her bittersweet smile again. "I think I'll just take that—"

As Kanya reached across the table for the box, Lily lashed out and struck her in the jaw. Kanya reeled back and pointed her wand at Lily, but by that time, Lily was on the floor diving for her own.

"No!" Kanya yelled, and kicked out, catching Lily in the chin and throwing her backwards.

"Stupe—"

But Lily had already jumped up and grabbed Kanya by the arm, and swung her into the wall, causing her to drop her wand. But, she kicked back, barely missing Lily. She turned around and Lily delivered a hard kick that caught her in her side. She threw a few punches at Lily, which she easily dodged. Lily kicked up again, but this time Kanya anticipated it, and dove sideways towards her fallen wand. By the time she realized what was happening, Kanya was pointing her wand at Lily, and a blue jet of sparks grazed her upper arm, leaving a deep cut. Lily dove sideway towards her wand and pointed it at Kanya.

"Stupefy!" she yelled, but her red sparks connected with Kanya's blue ones, and they both ricocheted into nothing. "Stupefy!" Lily yelled again, and this time the red light caught Kanya in her ribs, knocking her backwards, where she fell through a glass coffee table, unconscious.

"Rocket, I've got the list," Lily panted, and ran from the room.

LONDON, ENGLAND

Two days later, Lily was sitting in Diagon Alley at a restaurant table with Carrie and Ian, when her purse started beeping.

Lily groaned quietly, and reached down to retrieve her beeper. LOQUE-ASAP. "I'm sorry, but I have to go," Lily said, and sounded as though she really did regret it.

"You know you could just quit," Carrie said. "It wouldn't be hard for you to find another job."

"Carrie…I like what I do," Lily said. "But I hate the fact that they always call at the worst times," she grumbled, pulling on her jacket. "I'll see you tonight."

Lily entered the LRT offices, and headed towards the conference room, where Loque, Desmond, and Mason were all waiting.

"Sorry I'm late," she said and took her seat.

"Okay," Loque said, standing ready to begin the briefing. "Silvio Roscale. Explosives specialist. We've received intel that he has set up a meeting in Cairo with Arno Navoure."

"I thought Navoure was in a Spanish prison for murdering an Auror," Mason said.

"He was. Until a week ago. He was released eight months early, obviously he has ties to Spanish law enforcement," Loque stated.

"So why is an explosives specialist meeting with Navoure?" Lily asked.

"We don't know, and that's what you're going to find out," Loque said. "Their meeting is set for tomorrow afternoon, the in-country contact will tell you more about the meeting. Desmond," Loque finished.

"Yeah," Desmond said, hopping up. "Well, I only got one cool gadget for you Miss Evans today, but I have definitely outdone myself on this one," he said rummaging in his pockets. "Here we go," he said, taking out a large ring. "This is actually a parabolic microphone, it will hear anything you point it at. Now, you're just going to tape the meeting, and you could be a half a mile away, and just have this pointed in their direction, and you could hear their heartbeats if you really wanted to," Desmond explained. "Oh, and I also added a filter to filter out any ambient noise."

"Thanks," Lily said, taking the ring from him.

"You leave tomorrow morning," Loque said. "Good luck."

"All you have to do for this one is to relay any information back to us," James said a few hours later. He and Lily were facing opposite sides of the aisle in a convenience store, James making himself a slushie, and Lily was examining a box of instant oatmeal. "Once we know more, we'll be able to know better what our next move is."

"I'll see you when I get back," Lily said, putting the oatmeal down.

"Actually, no you won't," James said, putting the lid on his slushie. "I'm being replaced by a senior officer. Apparently, I wasn't experienced enough to be your handler," he said, with a slight bitterness. "But it was really nice working with you, good luck in Egypt," he said, paid for his slushie, and left the store.

"This is a load of dung," James said later that day. He was pacing around his office, and Sirius was sitting behind James' desk. "Do you know who's replacing me? Do you?" James roared, his voice rising.

"Yes, Bales," Sirius said tiredly. He had been listening to James rant for a half an hour.

"Bales, BALES! I mean he may be a senior officer, but the man has the intelligence of a caveman," he ranted.

"Can I say something here? I think you're starting to get a little too emotional about this," Sirius said wisely.

"That's b--"

"Look, your obviously attached to this woman, and maybe it is a good thing they took you off the case."

"Thanks for all the help, Padfoot," James replied sarcastically, then sighed. "Get off my chair."

A shrill ring sounded through Lily's apartment late that night.

"Hello?" came the muffled voice of Lily, who was still buried under covers.

"Gino's Pizza?"

Lily's eye's jerked open in surprise. She had already received her counter mission from Potter, so why were they calling her again?

"Uh, wrong number," came the hoarse reply, and Lily hung up the phone.

A half an hour later, Lily was dressed in jeans, an old t-shirt, and flip flops as she climbed into the back of a delivery truck.

Instead of James Potter, sitting in the truck, Lily looked warily at the middle aged man sitting in front of her.

"Agent Evans," he said in an oily voice, "I'm Thomas Bales, I'll be your new case officer," he said, sticking out his hand.

Lily took it, but instead of shaking it, Bales raised it to his mouth and kissed it. Lily frowned at him, and yanked her hand away, immediately disliking the man.

"Mr. Bales, it is 1:30 in the morning," Lily said brusquely. "Is there a reason I'm here?"

"I just wanted to get a little face time with my girl," he said, smiling in a sick way. "And I just wanted to make sure you didn't have any questions or queries," he said.

"I've got a query," Lily said coldly. "Are you mad? Calling me in for 'a little face time?' 'You're girl' is risking her life, and you yours every time we see each other, so do me a favor. Don't be so friendly."

"I just love your spirit," he said, this time, somewhat awkwardly.

"That's lovely. If there's nothing else?"

"Actually, your counter mission has been revised," he said, taking something from his folder. "We want you to tag Navoure, that way we can track him to his base of operations."

"Wait, wait, wait," Lily said quickly. "Whose idea was this?"

"This is my op Miss Evans," Bales, said, finally getting agitated. "I don't want to pull rank, but time is a factor."

"You know what? It is. You know how much time. Five years," Lily snapped. "That's how long I worked for LRT before I found out who they really were, and you know what else? My days of blindly following orders are over. You tell Director Kendall that if Agent Potter is not here when I get back, the MSA gets nothing."

"Potter is a junior officer," Bales drawled.

"Then promote him," Lily commanded. "We're done here."

CAIRO, EGYPT

"How've you been, Malik?" Mason asked their contact.

"It's been a while, its nice to see you," Lily said, kissing Malik on each cheek.

"Yes it has," he said smiling.

"Any word on the meet?"

"Yes, we've received word that they're meeting this afternoon at a local marketplace, I've got a good spot for us," he said. "We should go."

"Can you hear me?" Lily said two hours later. Her hair was now waist length and blonde, in two braids on either side of her head. She was wearing the ring that Desmond had made for her, which went perfectly with her new Bohemian outfit.

"Loud and clear," Mason's reply came.

"Let's get some," Lily said, and headed down into the market place from their makeshift watchtower.

She walked along, looking casually at the merchants wares, but really keeping an eye out for Roscale or Navoure.

"I've spotted Roscale, Navoure hasn't arrived yet," Lily whispered. "Wait, there he is, he just got here," she said as a large black man joined the short gray haired one at the table. Lily repositioned her right hand so the ring was pointing at the two.

"If we're going to use Belfast as the delivery, I'll need the piece by Friday," Navoure said in a South African accent.

"As long as the financial arrangements can be made, that shouldn't be a problem," Roscale replied.

Lily looked up, to see Roscale's body guard looking directly at her. Unfortunately he looked familiar.

"Oh god," Lily breathed. "The little guy's bodyguard, I know him."

"What?"

"From Berlin three years ago…the son of a bitch broke my hand," Lily said, quickly walking away in the other direction. Lily looked back to see the bodyguard looking up into the loft where Mason and Malik were monitoring the meeting. He then whispered something into his collar, then came after Lily who was quickly striding away from him, but the crowd was getting thicker, and he eventually caught up with her.

He grabbed her arm. "You, I know you," he said.

"I'm sorry are you talking to me?" she said.

"I think you know me too," he said, and threw her into an alcove where she fell to the floor.

"I'm sorry, but I don't know you," she said, acting innocent and scared.

"This time, I'll do more than just break your hand," he said, drawing a long and unusually thick wand from his jacket pocket, but Lily reacted faster.

"Petrificus Totalus!" she cried, and he fell to the ground, stiff as a board. Lily didn't waste any time, and ran up the stairs to the loft.

"Mason! Mason do you copy!" she yelled, but there was no answer.

When she finally got to the top of the stairs, she saw Mason in an intense fight with a huge man. Out of another room a man came out and came after Lily which she tried to stun but he knocked her wand away with a chop of his arm. Lily grabbed his shoulders and threw him into the wall, cracking his head on the stone, then saw that Mason was still having trouble. She picked up a large vase from a stand in the hallway and brought it crashing on the man's head, knocking him out.

"You okay?" she panted.

"I'm fine," Mason said, wiping the blood from his lip. "We've got to get out of here.

Lily scooped up her wand, and grabbed two large cases. "Where's Malik?"

"In there, they chased him in there," Mason said pointing to the room that Lily's attacker came from. She ran inside only to see Malik lying in a pool of blood.

"Oh, please, no," she said, but she didn't feel a pulse.

"Lily! We— Oh, no," he said seeing Malik. He took a deep breath. "We've got to get out of here," he said grabbing Lily's arm, pulling her from her kneeling position on the floor. "Let's go."

LONDON

"Thank god it's you and not Bales," Lily said the next day where she walked into a self-storage facility, where James was waiting behind a rolling fence.

He opened it for her, then closed it. "Thanks for the promotion," he said, and smiled.

"Sure," Lily said. "That bloke was the biggest slime ball I have ever met," she announced. "There was no way in hell I was going to work with him."

"No kidding, I couldn't believe they were going to stick you with him," James said. "Now, anything to report from the meeting?"

"Something that they're going to use Belfast as a delivery," Lily said. "Now for what, I haven't got a clue. But Navoure said he'd need the device by Friday if they were going to use that location."

"Nothing else?"

"No, they were very vague," Lily said. "That and the fact that Roscale's bodyguard recognized me," Lily muttered. "We had to make a fast split."

"I'm glad you're okay," James said.

"Thanks. I'll make contact if LRT comes up with anything else," Lily replied. "I'll see you."

Lily was just finishing her report for Loque later that day at LRT headquarters. She looked up, only to see her father exiting the offices. Lily got up and caught up with him as he entered the hallway.

"Dad?"

Jack Evans turned around. His green eyes were dark. Lily could remember a time when her father's eyes sparkled with happiness, but she had barely seen him smile at all since her mother died, almost twenty years ago.

"Lily," he said.

"You have a meeting with Loque?" she asked.

"Lazarey, actually," Jack replied, referring to the neuro-technician at LRT.

"Psyche evaluation?"

"Routine," he said. "Nothing I look forward to but, that's the job."

Lily gave him a small smile, and he turned to leave. "Dad, wait."

Jack stopped and turned around.

"Could we have dinner? How about tonight?" Jack looked slightly startled. "Do you have plans?"

"Tonight, dinner. That'll be fine," he said.

"Have you two spoken about her mother?" Loque asked Jack that afternoon.

"Yes. She asked me about her death."

"And did you tell her the truth?"

"No…not yet."

"Hey Carrie," Lily said, coming into the kitchen where Carrie had just let herself in.

"Where are you going?" Carrie asked, seeing Lily dressed in a pink print dress.

"To have dinner with my father," Lily mumbled.

Carrie pulled a face. "Have fun with that," she said sarcastically.

Lily yawned widely. "I'm so tired," she said, leaning her forehead against the wall.

"Where were you yesterday?"

"Hong Kong," Lily lied. "That was the most boring six hour seminar ever."

"Six hours!"

"Unfortunately. Do you think this looks okay?" she asked, pulling at the dress.

"Where are you going for dinner?"

"Mitchell's…so its kind of dressy, kind of not," Lily said. "Is this okay?"

"Yeah, just throw on a red cardigan and sandals and you'll look fine," Carrie said.

"Good, because I'm too tired to coordinate."

Carrie laughed. "Just try not to get too mad at him," she joked. "And try to have a good time."

"Would you like to order, love?" the waitress asked Lily.

"I'll wait, thanks," Lily replied. "I'm meeting someone," she explained.

Her father was a half an hour late, which was not like him. He was a very punctual man, and got angry if you were five minutes late. Lily said there for another fifteen minutes, feeling like a fool, when the maitre'd came up to her.

"Miss? You have a telephone call," he said.

Lily got up and followed the maitre'd to a telephone at the reservations desk.

"Hello?"

"Lily," Jack's brusque voice came through the receiver. "I apologize, but I'm going to have to cancel for tonight.

"

"No, its alright," Lily said.

"Work….its…I can't get away. You understand."

"Of course, don't worry about it. I'll see you…I'll just see you."

"Okay. Bye," and Jack hung up the phone.

"I'm sorry to call you on this, its just I have no one else to talk to about this," Lily said later that evening. She and James were standing on a pier at the river, tears pouring down Lily's face.

"My father and I were supposed to have dinner tonight, for the first time since I was little, I can't even remember the last time," she sobbed. "And he just didn't show," she said miserably. "He said he had work, and he didn't have work…" and a new wave of hard sobs came over her.

"This isn't just about my father….that man who died in Egypt was a friend of mine. And he was a good man, he thought he was working for the right side, that he was working for the MSA, he was lied t-to, and now he's d-dead. I had his blood on my hand--" and Lily stopped, because she couldn't continue talking for her crying.

"Lily—"

"I feel like I'm going mad! Like I don't even know who I am anymore, or what I'm doing, or why I'm doing it—" Suddenly, Lily's pager started beeping, and she ripped it out of her purse and heaved it into the river. There was a short pause until—

"You just threw your beeper in the Thames," James said.

Lily let out a bark that was half sob, half laugh. "I know," she said, trying to calm herself.

"Okay, come on. When you first walked into my office two weeks ago, with that stupid, crazy hair. I though you were insane. I seriously thought you were mad. But I watched, and read your statement. I've seen…I've seen how you think, I've seen how you work…I've seen who you are. In this business, you see the worst in people. But you can't let that dampen your spirit. The missions change, and the enemies have a thousand faces…but you can't let your anger, and your resentment darken you," he said. "But, I want you to know, that when you're at your lowest, you can always talk to me," James finished.

Lily reached out for his hand which was resting on the railing. "Thank you."

#&#(&))(&((&&(&$#&$(&)&#&#$#

Yay! Chapter two….let me know what you think…and just to let you know…you people suck at reviewing…I checked stats yesterday….i had two bloody reviews and 40 views. I mean come on! But thank you to the whole two people who reviewed…REVIEW! Its just plain rude not to!


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